"We are the Ka:'yu:'k't'h'/Che:k:tles7et'h' (pronounced Kie-YOU-cut and TSHEH-kleh-szet) First Nations. Our home is on the Pacific west coast of Vancouver Island. Our territory stretches from Porritt Creek, north of Nootka Sound, to Solander Island at the tip of Brooks Peninsula; inland to the height of land and seaward to the point where you can no longer see land while standing in a canoe.

Our two Nations came together in the early 1960s. Together, we are the northern most of 14 Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations occupying approximately 300 acres of Vancouver Island’s Pacific coast. Like the other Nuu-chah-nulth Nations, the Ka:'yu:'k't'h'/Che:k:tles7et'h' First Nations are confederacies, comprised of several chiefly families.

Each of our chiefly families’ names is associated with a stream, inlet, island or other natural feature. Family names carry the suffix –aht, which means “people of.” For example, Ka:'yu:'k't'h' (Kyuquot), are “the people of Ka:'yu:'k.” In this way, our connection to the lands and waters of this region is evident even in our own tribal names."1